This weekend, the Cornell Forensics Society held its 2012 Cornell Debate Tournament, drawing more than 320 debaters — including students from Texas, California and Vermont —  to participate in both Policy Debate and British Parliamentary, or “Worlds” Debate.

Sarah Berger ’15, who beat 87 other debaters to place as best individual debater for the National Novice Championship, said that winning as a freshman “feels great. It’s been really exciting.”

Berger and her partner, Ben Gandesbery ’15, were also semifinalists in the Novice National Championship.

“It’s been great working with my partner Ben this year,” Berger said. “Even though we only went to one tournament first semester, this gave us some confidence to go to more tournaments. While we’re getting acquainted with the activity, we can see ourselves getting better.”

Brian Roxas ‘15, who placed fifth in the Novice National Championship said he hoped to do even better in future competitions, but added that the tournament was a good starting point. 

“All of the novices did excellently from Cornell especially. It was a good tournament as a whole.”

Kirat Singh ’14 — who won first place the National Championship at the Novice division last year — judged both Worlds Debate and the Novice National Championship this year.

“Debating to judging is definitely a transition that everyone should make,” Singh said. 

She added that her experience as a judge allowed her to refine her debate skills.

“It makes you a much better debater because you see what the judges want,”Singh said.

Prof. Sam Nelson, director of the Cornell Forensics Society, said that he was surprised so many teams participated in the event, adding that it was a “great honor” to have such a wide array of teams on campus. 

“With the support of ILR Dean Harry Katz, the CFS was able to host our first Cornell debate tournament [that drew] over 400 people,” Nelson said in an email.

“Hosting this tournament was a real boon for the Cornell Forensics Society — it demonstrates competitor schools’ acknowledgment of our success in the debate community as well as their faith in our ability to manage such a big event,” said Daniel Lee ’14, vice president of external affairs for the society, in an email. 

Cornell is ranked fifth out of 500 schools around the world for Worlds Debate, according to the International Debate Education Association’s World University Debate Rankings.

Nelson noted that the Cornell Forensics Society is one of the largest organizations on campus, comprised of 187 debaters with “a really good set of leaders.”

In Policy Debate, two teams with two members each debate topics chosen by the Cross Examination Debate Association — the largest intercollegiate policy debate association in the United States. This year’s Policy Debate topic was about increasing U.S. federal assistance to countries in the Middle East, such as Libya, Bahrain and Syria.

The U.S. Naval Academy won this  competition at the novice level and Boston College won at the junior varsity level.

In Worlds Debate, two tournaments were held: the Cornell IV tournament and the first-ever U.S. Novice National Championship, a tournament for novice students in their first year of collegiate debate. The Novice National Champion was the University of Pennsylvania while the IV champion was Yale University.